OUR OPINION: Answers needed in FBI killing of suspect

Last month, a team of FBI agents and Massachusetts State Police officers questioned Ibragim Todashev, an associate of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed days after that attack.

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

Writer

Posted Jun. 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 5, 2013 at 5:03 AM

Posted Jun. 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 5, 2013 at 5:03 AM

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Last month, a team of FBI agents and Massachusetts State Police officers questioned Ibragim Todashev, an associate of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed days after that attack.

One of the agents left the interview with minor injuries. Todashev was apparently carted out with several bullet holes in his body. We say “apparently” because journalists have gotten conflicting reports from law enforcement about what happened. Many of those reports look bad for the FBI.

As best we can tell, Todashev had confessed to participating with Tsarnaev, a fellow Chechen, in a 2011 triple slaying in Waltham. He then, according to those conflicting reports, did something to provoke an FBI agent in the room, and the agent shot him. An early account – all have been provided anonymously – indicated that Todashev had a knife. Last week, though, it emerged that he was unarmed. Many reports say he overturned a table. Some suggest that Todashev might have been lunging for the agent’s gun, or – weirdly – a samurai sword in the room. The Washington Post reported that the agent may have been alone with Todashev at the time of the scuffle.

From Moscow, Todashev’s father is alleging that the FBI executed his son. With the eyes of the world once again on the United States’ response to an act of terrorism and its treatment of foreign nationals, the last thing the U.S. government needs is to fuel wild conspiracy theories by releasing too little information or investigating too slowly. The Obama administration must move heaven and earth to get to the bottom of what happened and make it public – quickly.

Even if the world weren’t watching, the case would warrant exceptional attention. Todashev had had run-ins with law enforcement before, and his possible involvement in the triple slaying is chilling. FBI agents may very well have had reason to worry about him. But if so, did they really leave a samurai sword in the room during questioning? Did they really leave only one person with Todashev? If neither of those accounts holds up, how else could the shooting be justified?

The FBI said that it takes the incident “very seriously,” that it is reviewing the events internally with its “time-tested” procedures and that it is doing so “expeditiously.”

But the curious circumstances and conflicting, anonymous explanations suggest that standard procedure might not be sufficient.